Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

That's true, Senator Abetz—I will take that interjection. What I think Senator Gallacher will find, if he looks more closely at the tender documents, is that the 50 per cent Australian industry content that was achieved on the Air Warfare Destroyer Program was provided to the future frigate participants in the tender documents to which he refers, with the guidance that the Australian industry content of the future frigate program is expected to be higher. As you know, the government has been completely clear—I have, the Prime Minister has and Minister Pyne has—that we are not in the business of mandating percentages in the major programs, because our focus is on maximising industry participation within capability, within cost and within scheduled requirements. That is the approach we have taken consistently. The reason we don't want to mandate specific percentages is that we don't want to be in the business of capping Australian industry participation without delivering the best capability for Navy and creating a highly competitive and productive Australian industry base.

What is important as well is that each of the future frigate tender participants—and I have spoken about them in this chamber before—have developed an Australian industry capability plan, as part of their required tender responses, which describes how they intend to (1) maximise opportunities for small to medium Australian suppliers in both the build and sustainment phases, and (2) transition their existing supply chains to Australian supply chains and explore opportunities to integrate Australian suppliers into their global supply chains.

So the Australian shipbuilding industry will be absolutely, fundamentally and completely involved in the build and sustainment of the future frigates. It will include direct and indirect involvement across the supply chain and support service, and will create thousands of jobs.